An award-winning Trowbridge chef is among the top 12 in the UK after making the final of the prestigious National Chef of the Year competition.
Jethro Lawrence works for the UK’s leading ready-meals provider, apetito in Trowbridge, which also owns Wiltshire Farm Foods.
He will now compete against leading chefs from around the UK in London on Tuesday, October 8 in the finals run by the Craft Guild of Chefs.
An apetito spokesperson said: “This prestigious competition has previously been won by some rather well-known names in the culinary world including Gordon Ramsay, so getting to the final is an incredible achievement. In fact, it puts Jethro in the top 12 of all the chefs in the country.”
Jethro is a former head chef at the 2 AA Rosette Woolley Grange Hotel and BBC MasterChef: The Professionals quarter-finalist.
He joined leading meals provider apetito as a development chef three years ago and works with its team of in-house chefs and dietitians to develop high-quality, delicious and nutritious meals.
Phil Rimmer, head development chef at apetito, said: “We’re all so proud of Jethro for having made it to the final of such a prestigious competition.
“Jethro is a wonderfully talented chef and since joining apetito, he’s brought passion, knowledge and innovation to our product development team.
“Last year he did so well to get to the final of this competition, but this year, everyone at apetito is cheering him on to win and bring back the trophy.”
About the final, Judge and Chef Patron at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, Matt Abé, said: “The 40 semi-finalists didn’t make this an easy decision for us and there was a lot of deliberation to select just ten chefs, but I am confident we have an incredible level of talent cooking for us in the final. The second stage was really impressive with some great storytelling around the food.”
For the semi-finals the 40 chefs were tasked with cooking an amuse-bouche or pre-dessert with the theme ‘A taste of summer’ using seasonal ingredients.
The chefs were asked to bring this to life with a story of a personal food hero such as a chef, family member, mentor or industry personality.
Jethro said: “For my semi-final dish, I made an amuse-bouche. The base of the dish was brioche, toasted with roasted crayfish oil with crayfish, cucumber compressed in a yuzu and nasturtium oil and a thin slice of cured pork’s cheek. Finally, the dish was topped with rainbow trout roe and edible flowers.”
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